A day at the video rental store
by pikapikatchu
Summary: When Greg is looking for a movie to watch before going to bed things get dangerous... Not only for Greg. Will all the CSIs make it out alive?
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys!

So this is my first CSI fanfic. Actually my first fanfic ever :)

I spent four days writing it, so I really hope you guys enjoy it! (I actually changed the ending three times!)

Let me know what you think about it, this way I know what to do different with my next story.

Oh and part of the reason it took me so long to write it is that English's not my first language, so please bear with me :) I feel pretty confident writing in English but I know I made a lot of mistakes! Feel free to correct or comment my English. It's the only way I can improve it ;)

Okay, so this is a Greg-Centered story. I love the character and feel that the writers neglected him for four years now. His last good storyline was in Season 7 and we really need another good storyline ASAP! :D

But in the meantime I decided to write one, myself.

It's Greg-Centered, but the others (Nick, Sara, Cath, Ray and Brass) are important in this story, too. It's no shipper, but I guess you could use your own imagination to make it one! lol

I hope it's more or less believable. But more important, I hope I did a good job portraying the characters. I actually imagined them saying the lines I was writing and thought it fit quite good, but I'd like to know what you think :)

And now enjoy!

* * *

"I'll just be a sec!" Greg said to Nick, hopping out of the car.

They were just driving back to the lab from a crime scene, ready to call it a day, but Greg wanted to stop at the video rental store to get a good movie to watch before going to bed. Nick decided to wait in the car as usual.

* * *

The video rental store was quite a big place. Left from the entrance was the counter, around it were shelves full of drama movies and comedies. Just past the counter, in its own room, was the adult video section. Across from the adult movie room was the horror movie section.

Greg entered, waving to Janis, the store clerk, standing behind the counter.

As Greg was wandering through the aisles looking for a horror movie, he noticed a group of teenaged boys and two men going around the shelves. Something about them was kind of suspicious. They didn't really look like they were searching for a movie, so he decided to observe them a little.

There were three teenagers, probably between 16 and 18 years old, about as tall as Greg. The two grown up men looked like they were in their 30s. One of them was quite tall, about 6'5'', the other one maybe 3 inches shorter.

He couldn't get a good sight of their faces, though.

Greg really felt like something was off, so he decided to get out of there and tell Nick about it. He was about to make his way from the back of the store to the door when he noticed the boys going into the adult movie section. He stopped. He thought that was the reason they acted all suspicious and nervous. They were either underage or ashamed. Probably both. He smiled a little and went back to the horror movie section, not thinking about the two adult men he lost sight of. He didn't see them going in the adult movie section.

He was looking through the DVDs again when suddenly the boys came out of the adult movie section with their faces covered and guns in their hands.

"Lock the door now!" one of them yelled at the store clerk, fiercely walking up to her, pushing her to the ground, taking her keys and locking the door himself.

Greg just stood there, totally shocked, not knowing what to do. For a second he thought about using his cell and calling Nick, but he knew he'd be dead before Nick could even answer.

"Everybody down, now!" one of them shouted as the two adult men coming from the corner, tackled Greg from behind.

Greg was lying on the floor, hoping for Nick to get impatient and look for what was taking Greg so long. Nick was indeed impatient but knew Greg; it wasn't the first time he said he'd only take a minute and Nick ended up waiting for him several minutes.

"Get up. And let me see your hands!" one of them said, pointing his rifle at Greg, who was slowly getting up from the ground.

The robbers crowded the three customers and the store clerk together behind the counter.

"Sit down!" one of the robbers demanded.

From the outside it now looked like no one was inside the store.

"Okay now, everyone give me your cell phones!" All four hostages refused to do so, out of fear. "Now!" with a deep, threatening voice, he shouted. Greg quickly handed him his cell, giving the other three hostages a look that said "Just do as they say," and they followed.

"Attaboy! I see any of you move, you're dead. Got it?" he threatened. "Open the register," he said in a strangely calm voice. Janis was shaking and crying, unable to move. "I said open the register!" he now said in an impatient voice, punching her in the face. She now was lying there, crying even harder, but trying to get up and do as he told.

"I can do it..." Greg spoke up, fear clearly evident in his voice. He was sure the girl couldn't get up. "I worked at a store like this, I know how the register works," he lied as he slowly got up. He didn't want them to know the real reason he knew how this register worked. As a CSI he worked lots of cases where he had to take fingerprints from a register.

"Sure, why not," the robber said, kicking Janis as he went over to Greg, grabbing his arm and pushing him to the register.

"Wait!" one of the perps said from the back of the store, where they tackled Greg to the ground earlier. "What is this?" he went to Greg, holding Greg's work ID in his hands.

Greg didn't know what to say. There's no way he was going to make it out of here alive if they thought he was a cop.

"I asked you a question, an easy one. It has your face on it, so it clearly is yours. I'm not going to ask this question again, you got it?" He threw Greg's ID at him and grabbed him by his shirt.

"I...It's my ID. I'm a CSI." His voice was cracking up. He had no idea what they would do to him now, but he sure knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

"A cop! From all of the video stores in Las Vegas, we had to do this in the one with the frickin' COP?"

"I... I'm not a cop! I'm with the Crime Lab!" Greg said, desperately trying to explain himself. They weren't even listening.

"Where's his gun?" They pushed him against the wall and patted him down, looking for his weapon. "I don't have one, I'm a crime scene investigator, not a cop!" Again, he was lying. He had a gun, but not on him. It was in the car with his kit and his vest. Greg didn't like to wear his vest when he was not at a crime scene, let alone his gun! If he wasn't obliged to carry one at the crime scenes, he wouldn't.

"Alright..." the robber said. "Keep your eyes glued on this guy, you understand?" he whispered to his fellow who stood next to Greg, holding his rifle, making sure Greg had the end of the barrel always in sight.


	2. Chapter 2

It was almost half an hour since Greg went into that video rental store.

"Come on Greg, I wanna go home." Nick was getting annoyed by his colleague always lingering, so he decided to give him a call, reminding him that he left Nick in the car waiting.

* * *

"Okay, Crime Scene Boy, how does the register open?" Greg was about to get up and open it, when he was pushed down again. "No, no, no, you're not going near that thing! Just TELL me!"

Greg coughed. These guys sure weren't the gentle types, and getting pushed down really hurt. "You just have to push the..." he was interrupted by his cell ringing.

"Dammit, whose phone is that?" one of the robbers said, holding the phone. "What should I do?"

"What do you mean, what should you do? What's wrong with you? Crash it!" the one standing next to Greg replied.

"No, wait!" one of them said. He seemed to be the one in charge. "Give it to me." As he got the cell phone handed over he asked "Whose is it?".

No one answered.

"I said...WHOSE IS IT?"

"It's mine..." Greg said, knowing this wouldn't add anything positive to his situation.

"Oh great, someone's calling our Crime Scene Boy. What does he want?"

"I... I don't know..." Greg replied, stuttering and knowing it was probably Nick.

"How about I help you remember?" the guy standing next to Greg said, holding the barrel of the gun close to Greg's face.

Greg was trying to turn away from the barrel. "Look, just take the register key, turn it around and push the "open" button, take your cash and you can get out of here!" He was clearly getting nervous. What would happen if Nick came looking for him and found the store closed?

"Oh, now you think you're the one in charge here, Crime Scene Boy?" the leader of the gang said, in an aggressive, angry manner, going over to Greg and kicking and beating him like crazy.

As Greg failed to fight the man off, one of the hostages emitted a cry watching this big man going berserk on Greg. She feared she was going to be his next target.

"Shut up!" one of the robbers yelled at her, beating her to make sure she stopped screaming. "If someone heard you, you're dead!"

Greg could only watch this poor woman receive the same physical pain he just received as he tried to sit up again. His face and torso hurt like crazy, but all he could think about was that he was not able to help her, but he was sure that if he said something, it would only make things worse for both of them.

* * *

Nick did hear the screams but wasn't sure where it was coming from, so he decided to get out of his car and take a look.

There was a barber shop next to the video store, but it was closed, since it was a Sunday morning. There were no other stores in that area, only a couple of apartment complexes, so Nick figured the screams might've come from the video store. He decided to take a look from the outside but saw no one inside. It was a Sunday morning, after all, so it wasn't a surprise the store wasn't filled with customers. Who's renting a video at 11a.m. on a Sunday, after all? Not too many people, he guessed.

But still, there might be someone in there screaming for help. Ready to use his gun if necessary, he decided to go inside and take a closer look. But of course the door was locked. That, and Greg not answering his cell, didn't seem right to Nick.

* * *

"What are your names?" Greg whispered to the other hostages.

Silence for a moment. They all were terrified.

"Well, I'm Greg..." he finally said.

"My... my name is Steve..." one of them said, a 14 year old boy.

"Hi Steve..." Greg smiled. "It's gonna be okay, alright?"

Steve nodded and started to cry. He didn't believe Greg. Greg probably didn't believe it himself.

"What about you?" Greg asked the woman who was beat up earlier.

"Deborah..." she whimpered.

"Deborah, do you think you broke something?" Greg said mellow.

"I don't think so... I don't know..." she cried. "I just wanna go home..."

Greg looked at her in a pitying way. She received a much harder beating than Greg did.

Silence again.

"I'm Janis..." the store clerk said. "But you two already know that..." she said to Deborah and Greg, trying to fake a smile. "So what are we going to do?"

"Nothing." Greg said. "It's best to try not to do anything to make these guys angry... Just wait for them to leave."

"That's it?" Steve said. "You're a cop, you don't have a better idea than just sit around and wait it out?"

Greg could hear the anger and disappointment in Steve's voice.

"Look, I already told you... I'm not a cop. I'm a CSI, a scientist. I'm not trained for situations like this... I don't know what to do." his voice was going up a bit. He was as desperate as the others.

"Hey..." the guy standing next to Greg said. "Coffee party's over. Now shut the fuck up!" he slightly kicked Greg in the side. If it wasn't for Greg's injuries from the beating one of them gave him previously, it probably wouldn't have hurt that much, but Greg cringed out of pain when the foot hit his body.

"Dammit, there's someone at the door. He must've heard her scream!" the teenaged robber aimed at the woman lying on the floor, all bruised up.

"Or maybe he's just a customer!" Steve intervened. "Please!" he screamed as he begged for her life.

"Hello? Greg! Are you in there?" Nick was knocking at the glass door, looking for Greg.

"Wait... He's looking for him! He heard you scream!" without thinking about how loud guns are, one of the young robbers pulled the trigger of his gun.

Deborah was lying on the floor, bleeding, not moving. Her eyes still open.

Greg was sitting only a few inches away from her. "No..." he whispered to himself. "...give me your scarf!" he said to Janis. Without a word she handed it to him. She was as shocked as Greg was.

"What are you doing?" she sniffed.

"Trying to stop the bleeding." Greg pressed the scarf on the woman's gunshot wound.

"Come on..." he whimpered. But he felt it was already too late. She slowly closed her eyes, taking her last breaths.

"No! You need to do something!" Janis cried, hoping there was still a chance to save her.

Greg shook his head. "It's too late." He sat back where he was sitting before, wiping his bloody hands on his shirt, trying to get the blood off his hands. He tilted his head back and sighed.

As the teenaged robber was aiming at Greg, ready to shoot him, too, the leader got up to his young colleague. "Are you out of your fucking mind?" he exploded, beating the living hell out of him. Another shot was fired.


	3. Chapter 3

Backup arrived. Nick called them immediately after he heard the first shot. Brass came with half a dozen uniforms, accompanied by Catherine, Sara and Ray.

"How many of them are in there?" Brass asked Nick.

"I don't know... I only saw one." He was clearly nervous and worried for his friend's life. They all were and didn't even want to imagine what could be going on in there.

"I assume Greg doesn't have his gun with him, right?" Sara asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, he left it in the car..." Nick replied.

* * *

The phone was ringing.

"Okay, Crime Scene Boy, answer it!" The robber in charge tossed the cordless phone to Greg.

"Hello, this is Greg..."

"Greg, you're alive! Thank God!" Brass responded. "Are you okay? What's going on in there? We heard shots!"

"Yeah... they shot one of the host..." Greg was interrupted by the leader. "Gimme that!" He kicked Greg to the ground. Brass could hear Greg's agonized cry through the phone.

"Who am I talking to?" the gang's leader said.

"This is Captain Jim Brass, LVPD. How many hostages do you have in there?"

"Well, it used to be five. It's three now, but I'm getting tired of your Crime Scene Boy, it might as well be only two in a few minutes."

Not taking note of what he said about himself, Greg was confused. They only had four hostages, shot one and shot one of their own guys because of it. They probably didn't want the Police to know they shot one of their own, Greg figured.

* * *

The others could see Brass' horrified facial impression, but as always, he tried to play it cool with the hostage takers. "Well, how about you give me your hostages alive and take me instead?"

"No, we're quite comfortable with who we got in here. If you do what we want, you might get all three of them alive. I'll give you a few minutes to think about it." He hung up.


	4. Chapter 4

"Okay, so what's the plan, Jim?" Nick asked optimistically. Brass was a great negotiator and usually got all of the hostages out alive, but since he almost died a few years ago while negotiating with a hostage taker, he was a bit more cautious now.

"Greg didn't sound good, Nicky. We need to get them all out of there, quick."

With just one sentence, Brass managed to destroy that optimism Nick was known for.

"Did you see anyone going in after Greg?" Brass needed to find out more about who they were dealing with.

"No one even walked by my car since Greg went in. I'm sure no one went in or out since he went in there."

"Great. So we have no idea how many of them are in that store, it could be one, could be ten!" Brass replied sarcastically.

"Okay, now, let's try to focus," Catherine quickly intervened. "I just got off the phone with the store owner. She said there is only one store clerk in there. Janis Mueller. But the earnings from last night are still in there. She said that they have a vault down in the basement where they keep a week's earnings before they take it to the bank. Jim, there are several thousand dollars in there. Why would they take five people hostage and not take the money and get the hell out of there? It doesn't make sense. A robbery like that usually takes a few minutes, not several hours."

This got all of them thinking what the robbers' motives might be.

"Or..." Sara had a theory,"...maybe they just wanted to take the money and something went wrong. The hostage situation is improvised!"

"We need to use this to our advantage. If they didn't prepare to take hostages, they might be over-challenged with the whole situation. They might give up easily." Ray concluded.

"Or maybe things get out of hand because they don't know what to do about it..." Brass again destroyed all optimism they just found again minutes earlier.

For a minute they were all just standing there in silent, thinking about what Greg might be going through right now. In all those years working with the Crime Lab, he had to go through lots of things. And every stroke of fate changed him as a person. While Ray and Catherine were thinking about what he was going through physically, Sara and Nick wondered how it would change their friend. He used to be much more bubbly before he got out of the lab and had to see people on their worst day. And when he was beaten up by a mob a few years ago and killed one of them, it was obvious that it took him a long time to live with what happened, even though it was self defense.

Then Warrick died. It was hard on everyone of them. Not only because they lost a colleague and a friend, but also because once again they were reminded that they have a very dangerous job.

And now Greg was taken hostage, and it didn't even have anything to do with him being a CSI! After being beaten up while driving to a crime scene, he really considered staying in the lab for a while. Instead, he went back to work a few weeks later, only to keep himself from thinking about that idea. He needed to get back on the horse quick in order to not wuss out after six weeks of thinking about how dangerous his job actually was.

And now that he knew he wasn't even safe in his free time, how would that change him?

Brass was the only one thinking about if Greg would even make it out of there alive. He was the only one who heard what exactly the hostage taker was saying. And HOW he was saying it.

Something had to be done. Brass called again.


	5. Chapter 5

"Have you thought about my offer yet?" the leader asked Brass on the phone.

"Yes. What do you want?"

"I want 50.000 dollars and a getaway car."

Brass felt this was an opportunity he might not get again. "How many seats?"

"...Huh?" the leader was confused. He didn't expect him to ask something like that. "You... you mean the car?"

"Yeah. You never told me how many guys you had in there, are five seats enough or do you need a bigger car?"

The leader wasn't sure if Brass was serious or mocking him. "We need five seats."

Greg overheard the conversation and again was confused. They told Brass they had five hostages, two dead, one of them was one of their own. That would mean they only need four seats. Wasn't he thinking about his dead guy or was he planning something? Greg was getting more and more anxious.

"The money might take a while." Brass explained.

"You got an hour. And don't dare you playing tricks on me! You know which hostage will take the blame, right?" he hung up again.

"Okay guys, we'll leave in an hour. Take the money from the register already!" the leader told one of his minions. He was getting nervous.

His minion opened the register. "There is roughly 200 dollars in it!"

"What? You said there was going to be at least 30.000 dollars! Where is the rest?" one of the other minions got nervous.

"I KNOW there has to be more money!" He turned to the store clerk. "You TRICKED us!" he screamed at her, hitting her in the face.

"No, the money's in the basement! I thought I already told you!" she replied in fear.

This talk about the money didn't make any sense. Greg was there the whole time, she never said anything about the money. Was she in on the whole thing? Greg was suspicious.

"Okay, give me the keys, I'll go down and get it. You, come with me," he said to one of his minions. "You make sure no one moves..." he said to his young colleague with a look on his face that made clear what he meant. "Let's go." He grabbed Greg's arm and helped him up. "You're coming with us. We don't want you to make any more troubles while I'm gone."

* * *

The basement looked like an office. The store owner probably did her paperwork down here.

"So..." the minion said. "How's this going down? Are they really giving us a car so that we can get away?"

"Don't you worry about it. We'll get rid of Derek, take Janis with us and drive away. That's it!"

Getting rid of Derek? It all didn't make sense. Who's Derek and why do they want to get rid of him? Is Janis, the store clerk Greg knew for over a year, in on this? He even went out on a date with her once, he was sure she was a nice girl. On the other hand, he met a lot of people on his job he never would've imagined to be murderers, either. If there was one thing he learned from being a CSI, it's that nearly everyone is capable of murder.

"And why would they let us drive away into the sunset? Why don't they just follow us?" the minion obviously had troubles trusting his leader about this.

"Trust me, man" the leader said "I'm sure they don't want to risk losing their precious boy." he said, looking to Greg with an evil smirk on his face.

"Ah, now i get it. We'll leave with him. And what are we going to do with him once we're out of Nevada?"

Leaving with Greg? That didn't sound good. His heart was beating like crazy.

"Don't worry about him," the leader said in his calm voice. "It's a 30-minute drive, we'll find the time to get rid of him." He turned to Greg again, who was hugging the wall behind him, went over him and leaned forward. "We don't want him to tell anyone where we're going, so we need to make sure he won't be able to sing." He smirked at Greg who was fighting back tears.

The leader leaned closer to Greg. There was only about an inch between their faces, hardly enough space to turn his head away from him.

"You did see how easily I shot one of my OWN, right?" he chuckled. He just loved to see the terror in Greg's eyes. And Greg was terrorized. The leader had no reason to spare his life.

He turned away from Greg and as quickly as he did that, he turned to him again and punched the wall Greg was hugging, mere inches away from his face. As Greg winced, the leader laughed out loud. "It's really fun messing with you. I'll miss that, you know." He patted Greg's cheek.

"He's kinda cute, isn't he?" the leader asked his minion.

"Well..." the 6'5'' tall minion said, "I guess you could have lots of fun with this boy if you'd wanted to." He gently touched Greg's cheek. "Yeah... lots of fun..." as the minion got closer to Greg's face, he closed his eyes, trying to turn away from him.

"Oh, I see, he's shy... I like that..." the minion kissed Greg.

"No...!" Greg desperately tried to fight him off. He even managed to shove him away, but it didn't stop the perp.

The minion pushed Greg's shoulders against the wall "Help me there, will ya?" he asked his leader with a kinky smile on his face.

"I guess you'll have to wait for your fun a bit longer," The leader pistol-whipped Greg. He was now crouching on the floor. "He's not in the mood right now."

The minion knelt down to Greg and whispered "You're in luck this time... but next time... I'll be the lucky one."

The leader went to the vault and took the money out of it. Almost 35.000 dollars. Janis managed to keep the earnings from last week in the vault so that they'd have more.

* * *

As they went back up, Greg had a hard time climbing those stairs. He was still dizzy from being pistol-whipped and had blurred vision. The blood was running down his face. He tried to wipe it off, but it just kept coming.

Derek asked the leader "How much did you get?"

"More than we thought we would!" the leader said with a smirk and shot Derek.


	6. Chapter 6

"That's it, we're going in!" Brass was about to tell his guys to get in there and overpower the robbers.

"No!" Catherine yelled "Jim, let's find out what's going on first. We can't rush anything here, I can't risk losing one of my guys!"

"Maybe you already did! Or maybe you will if we don't DO anything!" As Brass argued with Catherine about whether or not he should send his men in, the phone rang. As always in a hostage situation, the phone was prepared so that every time someone picked up the phone inside, they called Brass.

"This is Detective Jim Brass. What's going on in there?"

"Nothing. Everything's fine," the leader replied.

"Let me talk to my man. I need to make sure you're telling the truth."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I'm supposed to trust you so you'll have to trust me."

Brass was about to give the sign to storm the store. "No. You either get him on the phone, you'll be out of there in 5 minutes. I can't guarantee you you'll WALK out of here, though."

The leader was getting nervous. Brass sounded very convincing. "Fine. Get up, Crime Scene Boy!"

Greg was walking to the phone quite slow.

"Go ahead!" one of them said, pushing Greg to the phone using his rifle.

Brass could hear Greg groaning with pain over to phone.

"Yeah..." Greg answered with a weak voice.

"Greg, don't worry, we'll get you out of here in about half an hour. Just hang in there, okay?"

"No, Brass, they plan to take me with the..." Again, Greg was interrupted, by a blow to the head. He fell on the floor and didn't move. He was knocked out.

"Greg? Greg? What's going on? Talk to me!" Brass yelled in the phone, looking at his colleagues' faces. They all had terror in their eyes.

"I'm sorry, Greg's been a bad boy. He's not allowed to talk on the phone anymore. He's breathing, that's all you need to know. You have 25 minutes to get us our money and our car, or he might not be breathing anymore, got it?" He hung up.

* * *

The CSIs had no guarantee that Greg was still alive. Something had to be done. Storming the store would be too much of a risk for any hostage in there, so they decided to meet the hostage taker's demands.

"The car will be here in 5 minutes, the money needs another 15..." Catherine sighed.

"Okay... We just need to make sure they won't take Greg with them." Brass picked up the phone.

"What now?" One of the minions answered.

"This is Jim Brass. The car will be here in a few minutes, the money will take another 15."

"Good, we need you and your men all to be at least 900 feet away from the door. Got it?"

"Right. But we need something from you in exchange," Brass confidently said.

"I'm sorry, but that's not how this works. You're not the one making any demands." The minion sounded as confident as Brass did.

"Well in that case, make yourself comfortable because you're not going anywhere. We bring you what you want and I need something from you to be able to trust you."

"..." The minion didn't say anything, he just let his leader take over.

"What is it now?" the leader said aggressively.

"Is my man okay?" Brass asked.

"I told you you won't talk to your precious boy on the phone anymore."

"Fair enough... Your car and money will be here in a few minutes. But in order to get it I need something from you."

"And what would that be?" the leader replied amused.

"I need you to give me the hostages."

"Oh, of course. How about I give you our guns? Oh, and while we're at it, why don't you just throw in the handcuffs and we'll cuff us ourselves?" he replied sarcastically.

"Okay, now, calm down. I need one of the hostages. You're not taking them with you, anyway, are you?"

"This conversation is over. Call again when the money and the car's ready." Once again he hung up.

The leader leaned over to Greg, who was lying on the ground. He was conscious again but he didn't have the strength to get up by himself. "You little piece of shit told them about our plan..."

"I... just wanted to say goodbye to them..." Greg explained, his voice getting weaker with every word he said.

"Sure you did. You're not in the position to lie to me, little boy," he said, kicking Greg.

"Ugh..." Greg didn't even have enough strength to scream anymore. He knew he had to come up with something good to make it out of here alive. He trusted his colleagues outside, but he also knew how these hostage situations were usually handled. They usually waited for the hostage taker to give up and it didn't look like this guy was about to give up anytime soon.

"Maybe... You should give them the hostages," Janis whispered to the leader.

"What?" the leader said, turning around to find out it was Janis who suggested that. "Janis, what the hell are you talking about?" he whispered back.

"Well..." she continued, "Give them the boy and Greg, we don't need them, anyway. They believe I'm a hostage, too. Isn't one enough to keep ourselves safe?"

"No, we need to take the Crime Scene Boy with us..."

"Why?"

"Because he already knows too much. He knows you're in on this. We can't let him get away."

* * *

The robbers were in the back of the store, discussing what exactly they'd do once they got out of Nevada, leaving the hostages behind the counter on their own. They figured Greg was too weak to do anything that could jeopardize their plan and the other hostage, a 14 year old boy, was too scared to even move. And then there was Janis, the store clerk. They did beat her up, but it was all for the sake of the plan. She was in on it the whole time. They trusted her.

"So what do you get for helping those thugs?" Greg weakly whispered to Janis.

"Shut up, Greg. It's none of your business. Why couldn't you just back off and let them take the money? It's your fault this woman was killed." As she pointed to Deborah, she teared up. She obviously didn't want anyone to get hurt.

"That's not true and you know that. They had no scruples about killing either one of their victims. And I think they'll kill you, too..." he weakly said, closing his eyes every now and then. It was too exhausting to keep his eyes open.

"Shut. Up. You know NOTHING about those guys! I'm one of those guy's girlfriend; they'll take me with them!"

"And then what? The cops will find out that you were in on this. They don't know who those guys are, but they know who you are. How long do you think it'll take them to find you? You're in on a robbery that led to at least three dead bodies. That means you'll be prosecuted for murder."

"Greg, shut up!" She was getting nervous. She knew the leader for 7 months, but was that enough time to really trust someone?

Greg scooted over next to Janis, leaning against the wall.

"Janis, it's not enough money to start a new life. I'm a Crime Scene Investigator for over four years now, I KNOW that my colleagues will figure out who's responsible for all of this. I might be dead by then, but is it really worth it? Now's your opportunity to turn things around! You won't be prosecuted for murder if you help me get us out of here alive. I promise you." Greg was using all his strength he had for this speech. Of course Greg couldn't promise her that, but he wanted to get out of here. He knew that Janis was reconsidering her involvement in this. Was she doing what's in her best interest?

"And then what?" Janis sobbed. "I work in this video rental store making minimum wage. And now I'm supposed to betray the man I love? What kind of life will I have then? No money, no boyfriend..." She was confused. She didn't really think this whole thing through. She expected it to go down completely different. They were supposed to come in on a Sunday morning because there wouldn't be many customers. They were supposed to wait with their gig if a child was at the store, and now she was sitting next to a crying 14 year old. They were supposed to wait for her sign, which she didn't give because Greg was coming in. She knew he was a CSI. After all, he was a customer for over a year, and they even went on a date.

If they'd have waited for her sign, the guys would be out of there by now. They would've gotten rid of Derek and the other guy on their way home, so that they could share the money with three people instead of six. They didn't want to kill the other two because they were relatives of the leader. Ten-thousand dollars was not worth killing over, she now realized.

"Janis, please..." Greg said with tears in his eyes. "Do you really want that kid to die? Or me?"

Greg, what am I supposed to do? I can't go to jail! And besides, I need the money." She didn't even believe her own words. She didn't need the money, she didn't even want it anymore.

"Janis... When they were down the basement with me they talked about getting rid of you, too..."

As Greg finished his last sentence, the leader came up to him.

"What did you just say?" Now he was really angry! He grabbed Greg, pulled him up and pushed him against the wall. "Say that again!" he pushed Greg harder against the wall.

Greg tried to get the leader off of him.

"Come on, say it!" he screamed.

"Let go of him, Danny!" Janis yelled, trying to pull him away from Greg.

Danny, the leader, pushed Janis to the ground. "You stay out of it!" He grabbed Greg's wrist with his right hand, pushing his hand against the wall.

"Hand me your knife, will ya?" Danny said to his minion, who hesitated at first but then handed over his knife to Danny. It was a short, thin-bladed knife.

"No!" Greg tried to fight Danny off, but was too weak. He managed to slightly push Danny away which only lead to him becoming more and more aggressive. He pinned Greg to the wall by pressing his left arm against Greg's throat and pushing his wrist against the wall with the same hand. Without hesitation he rammed the blade into Greg's left hand.

* * *

The money finally arrived. When Brass was about to call the hostage taker, they all heard Greg's piercing cry.

Tears shot into Nick's eyes. "That was Greg."

Without thinking about the consequences, Brass, Catherine, Sara and Nick all drew their weapons, getting ready to get in there.

"Wait!" Ray objected "We can't just go in there! If anything goes wrong, they'll kill Greg!"

"Didn't you hear that scream? He might already be dead!" Catherine, who convinced Brass not to go in there half an hour ago, now was ready to get in there.

"They have other hostages, too. We can't let our personal feelings cloud our judgment. We might risk the other hostages' lives!" Ray tried to convince them.

"Okay..." Catherine calmed down "Let's brainstorm. What can we do?"


	7. Chapter 7

Danny was busy convincing Janis that Greg was lying to her.

"I don't want to kill you! Why would you believe this jerk?" Danny pointed to Greg, who was pinned to the wall with the knife, trying to get the knife out his hand.

"You touch the knife and you're dead" Danny threatened.

"I just don't know what to believe anymore! Everything went wrong! I told you I'm only in on it if no one dies!" Janis cried.

"You knew damn well that Derek and Hanson were going to die..." Danny was getting angry with her. "So don't go all Mother Theresa on me now!"

"Yeah, but what about her?" she pointed to the hostage Hanson killed. "And what about him? I told you you had to make sure there were no children in the store when you started your robbery!"

"He's fine, isn't he? Not a scratch on him!" Danny didn't care about any of the hostages. They would already be dead if Janis hadn't told him to keep them alive."

"And what about Greg?" she asked with fear in her voice.

"...What about him?" He knew exactly what she meant.

"Do you really want to take him with us and kill him?"

"Janis, I'll do anything to protect you," he tried to calm her down.

"This is your answer? You want to kill him... Why?"

As she asked this, he went over to Greg, pulling the knife out of his hand. Greg exclaimed a painful scream again, pressing his hand with his other hand to stop the bleeding.

"He knows too much, Janis. He knows who you are," he said, holding the knife in his hand, carefully cleaning it with a tissue.

"Oh yeah?" Janis' fear got replaced by anger and she didn't even notice Danny's obvious threat he made handling the knife. "And whose fault is this? YOU are the one who messed up! And now HE'S supposed to take the blame for it?" she pushed Danny.

"Janis, do you trust me?" He held her hands.

"...Of course..."

"See, I don't believe you. You let this guy convince you I'd kill you. That's not trusting someone!"

"No, but..." Janis tried to explain.

"Okay... You trust me? Prove it!"

"...How?" She was getting nervous.

Danny put his gun in her hand. "You kill him."

"What...? I... No! I can't kill him! Are you out of your mind?"

"Janis... I need to trust you, too. And I can't until you prove to me that you'd do anything for me." He was looking into her eyes, gently touching her cheeks and kissing her.

A tear was running down Janis' cheek. "I love you..." she gently whispered, aiming the gun at Greg.

"Janis, what are you doing?" Greg asked her with fear in his voice. He couldn't believe she would really consider shooting him! "Listen, you don't want to do this..."

The minion grabbed Greg's neck. "How would YOU know what she wants to do, huh?" He grabbed Greg's cheek with his other hand and turned his face towards his. "Can't I have some fun with him before she shoots him? Would be such a waste.."

As he tried to kiss Greg again, Greg screamed "Get off of me!" pushing the minion away, hard enough to make him fall down.

"Hey!" Danny fiercely went up to Greg, pressing the knife at Greg's throat.

"What was that?" Janis asked the minion, still aiming the gun at Greg.

"What? I'm just trying to have some fun, but I guess it won't be with him!" he pointed at Greg.

"What, you think molesting someone is fun? What's wrong with you?" she screamed, now aiming the gun at him.

"Whoa, slow down, bitch. What do you care?" He didn't care if he was provoking her.

"You're sick... you both are! I wish I'd realized this before I agreed to do this..." she sobbed.

"Okay, put the gun down, now." Danny said. "Or he's dead. And you're next," pressing the knife at Greg's throat harder.

The phone rang.

Janis was standing near the phone, still aiming the gun at the minion.

"You better pick up." he said.

"Shut up." She was confused and didn't know what to do. She kept looking to the phone but didn't answer it.

Greg looked out the window. He knew if no one answered the ringing phone, his colleagues would storm in. He wasn't too sure if it was a good idea to provoke that, but he had no better idea.

The phone stopped ringing.

Janis was sighing out of relief. It finally stopped! She couldn't think straight anyway, let alone with this annoying ring in her ears.

As the three went on arguing, Greg kept looking out the window. Three cops were already sneaking up to the store. Another three followed. Behind them, Greg saw Brass, Nick, Catherine and Sara. He really thought he was going to make it out of there alive! Tears of joy were filling his eyes.

"Danny, put down the knife... Or I'll shoot your degenerate cousin!" Janis threatened, still holding the minion at gunpoint.

"You won't. Because if you do, these walls will be painted with this guy's blood," he said, still pressing the knife against Greg's throat.

The phone rang again.

"God dammit!" Janis said, throwing the phone down the ground.

In the meantime, one of the cops opened the door with the keys the store owner gave them earlier. Inside, they didn't hear the door opening due to Janis' loud yelling.

The cops were silently hiding behind the shelves, waiting for Brass to tell them what to do. One of them aimed at Janis, another one at the minion, and Brass at Danny. But he knew he wouldn't get a clean shot without jeopardizing Greg.

"Okay, Janis... You better put the gun down, now..." the minion said and finally aimed his gun at Janis.

Brass gave the sign to shoot at the minion.

Six shots were fired.

This caught Janis and Danny by surprise. Janis turned her whole body around to see where the shots were coming from, unwittingly aiming the gun at Brass.

Four shots were fired.

* * *

Danny took cover behind the counter, still pressing the knife against Greg's throat, using him as a human shield, grabbing the minion's gun, who was gasping for air. Four of the six bullets pierced through his body. He was seriously injured.

"This was a bad idea, DETECTIVE!" Danny yelled behind the counter. You could hear the desperation in his voice.

"It's over! Show us your hands and get up!" Brass tried to convince him to give up.

"Don't come any closer or I'll kill him!"

"Okay, calm down... Think about it. You have no choice. Do you really want to kill a cop? I don't think that's a good idea, now, is it?"

"I'm not going to jail!" Danny was really desperate now, he had no idea what to do.

"Then don't do anything stupid now! I'll help you get through this."

"I'll show you stupid..." he whispered, pushing Greg to the side, standing up and opening fire at Brass and the others.


	8. Chapter 8

Both Danny and Brass were lying on the floor and didn't move. Nine bullets hit Danny's body. Four missed him. He was lying on his back. Seven of the bullets went through his chest and stomach and two through his arms. He was instantly dead. He didn't have a chance.

Sara, Nick and Catherine all shot at Danny. Sara missed him. Three of the four bullets that missed him came out of her gun. Nick got two hits, Catherine one.

Greg was kneeling next to Danny. He stared at him. His eyes were still open. His clothes soaked in his own blood. This man had control over Greg for over an hour. And now he was lying there, not moving, not breathing. Greg was relieved. And ashamed BECAUSE he was relieved.

"Greg!" Nick was running to him.

For a short second they all just stood there, fixing their eyes on Brass.

"Ray!" Catherine yelled "Get in here!"

Ray still was a level 2 CSI. Carrying a gun was not mandatory for him, so he stayed outside. Since he used to be a doctor, he knew what to do. While he was running towards the video rental store, followed by the paramedics, Sara and Catherine were all over Brass, trying to find out how bad he was hurt.

"Jim, can you hear me?" Catherine tried to talk to him.

Nick was trying to comfort Greg "It's okay now. Are you alright?" his face was uneasy. Of course he knew Greg was not okay, but he didn't know what else to say.

Greg sighed, looking at Brass "Is he going to be okay?"

"Come on, let's get you out of here. They'll take good care of him." Nick tried to walk Greg out.

"No..." Greg put his right hand on Nick's chest, making him stop. Nick knew there was no way to convince Greg to get out and get medical help and let them handle Brass, and he didn't want to leave Brass, either. So they just stood there, watching Ray examine Brass.

As Greg's hand was touching Nick's chest, he noticed a stain on Nick's shirt. "Nick, whose blood is this?" he said, without taking his eyes off that stain on Nick's sleeve.

"Huh?" Nick slowly let his eyes wander from Brass to his arm.

"I think you got shot... You need to get this checked!" Greg turned around to give one of the paramedics a sign to let them know they need him.

"Don't..." Nick gently put Greg's arm down "I'm fine. The bullet just scratched me. This can wait."

"Brass," Ray approached him, "Wake up."

Brass slowly opened his eyes and started to cough. Everyone exhaled in relieve. He seemed to be alright.

"I'm fine... I'm fine..." he said, slowly getting up.

"No, don't get up just now." Ray was worried.

"It's okay, it didn't go through my vest. It just hurts like I was kicked by a horse, but other than that, I'm fine," Brass said jokingly and stood up. "What about them?" he pointed to Janis, Danny and the minion.

"One dead, one critical. I don't think he'll make it..." one of the paramedics said. "But the girl has a chance, I believe." She was rolled into an ambulance while they were talking.

"How come there's no paramedic taking care of him?" Brass said indignant, pointing to Greg, who was still standing close to Nick.

A paramedic rushed to Greg and checked on him. "I think you may have a slight concussion. Let's get him out of here!"

Greg walked out of the store, but stopped on his way through the door to turn around to his colleagues. He wanted to tell them how thankful he was that they saved him, but he couldn't. The words just wouldn't come out of his mouth, he just smiled at them, gave him an appreciating look and walked out.


	9. Chapter 9

Catherine was sitting in her office. Almost three weeks had passed since the team almost lost two of their colleagues.

"Hey Catherine..." Brass walked in.

"Jim, come on in."

"I hear Greg is back to work again?"

"Yeah..." she smiled, putting her glasses down, "I told him he could take a few weeks off, but he wanted to get back to work."

"Is he, uh... talking to our department shrink?"

"He has five mandatory sessions, why?" Catherine was confused. Why would Brass ask her this?

"Well, as you know, I was the one questioning him about the hostage situation, right?"

Catherine nodded.

"I'm not sure what it is, but I got the feeling he's not telling everything."

"What, you think he was lying to you?" Catherine couldn't believe these accusations.

"No, not lying. I just felt like he left some things out," Brass explained himself.

"Like what? Greg knows how important it is to tell everything when it comes to investigations. Why would he leave some things out, Jim?"

"Look, Catherine. It's quite clear. We got them. Greg wouldn't have to tell us anything, we would still get a conviction. No, it's not about that. I'm not trying to stir up any troubles here, either. Greg's a good kid, I know that. I'm just worried, you know? I've been on this job long enough to know when someone's not telling the whole story. He needs to talk about what happened in there."

Catherine didn't say anything, just gave Brass an understanding look and sighed.

"I just thought you should know." Brass got up and left the office.

"Thanks..." she quietly said.

As she was walking by Brass, Sara greeted him. "Hey Cath," she said, entering the office. "I just came from the hospital. Janis Mueller is out of the woods. She will make a full recovery."

"That's good news," Catherine said, not looking up from the files she was reading.

"Yeah, well... I know she didn't kill anyone, but she still is responsible for all of this."

Catherine looked up to Sara. "She's just a confused, stupid woman who trusted the wrong people, Sara. I don't think she deserves to die..."

"No... But everyone seems to be acting like she's innocent. Even Greg said he forgives her. I don't get it." She sat down.

"No, I get it," Nick said, standing in the door. "Greg still believes there's some good in her. It's a good sign."

Sara looked at Nick, giving him a confused look.

"He... didn't lose his faith, his... optimism. He'll fight through this." Nick smiled at the two ladies and walked away.

"...I still don't get it..." Sara shook her head, understanding what Nick meant, but not understanding how Greg could be that forgiving. She lost faith in humanity a long time ago.

* * *

Greg was sitting in the break room, he was by himself, holding a cup of chamomile tea.

"Hey Greg..." Catherine went in, smiling. "It's good to see you, though I thought you'd take a few weeks off..." What Brass told her got her worried. She wanted to find out how Greg was doing.

"Yeah, well, I feel good, I thought it was time to go back to work. I'm sure you've all missed me around here," he said jokingly.

"Actually we have..." Catherine said smiling, making a longer pause.

"So..." she said, going into the room, sitting down opposite him. "How did your parents take all of this?"

Greg laughed. "I spent three hours on the phone convincing my mom not to come over."

"Why?" she gave Greg a weird look.

"You know..." Greg was embarrassed to tell Catherine about it. "A few years ago, the thing with Demetrius James... She planned to stay three days and ended up staying over a week."

"Well that's nice, isn't it?" Catherine didn't understand what his problem was. She knew he loved his parents, they were a very loving family.

"The first five nights..." he went on, "I heard her cry herself to sleep... I know she worries about me, but she's not making it easier when she's around. I don't want her to see me like that." His face was still bruised and his hand was wrapped in bandages. "And don't even get me started on my father, he's almost worse..." he said with a forced laugh, trying to make Catherine feel better about this.

Catherine didn't know what to say. She was a mom herself, she understood very well what Mrs. Sanders must be going through. But she could also understand that Greg wanted to protect her from this.

"I get that..." she finally said. "But as a mother I know she'll probably worry more about you when she's not around..."

"I know... It sounds selfish, but I can't worry about her right now, you know?" Greg said with a painful look on his face.

"Greg..." she said, smiling at him. "You already do." She got up, went over to Greg and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "I'm really glad you're okay." She kissed him on the forehead and went out of the room.

* * *

Nick was standing outside the break room, watching Greg. It took him some time to find the courage to get in there.

"Hey," Nick heard from behind.

Nick jumped "Geez, Hodges!"

"Sorry..." he said sarcastically and rolled his eyes. "You've been standing here for at least five minutes."

Nick rolled his eyes. He liked Hodges, but he could be a pain in the ass sometimes.

Hodges looked through the break room's glass door. "Oh, I see. I haven't talked to him ever since, either. It's not like this is the first time something like that happened to one of us... or Greg. But still, it's always hard to deal with it."

Nick just nodded, still watching Greg.

"But you should go in there. Just say anything. He needs his friends now."

Nick looked at Hodges. He's seen this side of Hodges before, but hewas always surprised to see it again.

"Thanks, man," Nick said, patting Hodges on the shoulder, walking into the break room.

"Hey," Nick said. "I didn't expect you to be here so soon."

Greg had a smile on his face that showed his discomfort. He couldn't get used to these situations, either. "Well, you know, I thought it was better to go back to work instead of sitting at home all the time. I got bored." he shrugged his shoulder and sipped from his tea he was still holding in his hand.

"You got bored?" Nick laughed. "You have enough football video games in your apartment to keep you busy for about ten weeks." And while he said that, he realized what an insensitive comment this was. He forgot about Greg's hand, he wasn't able to use a controller. Luckily, Greg's hand would heal eventually, but right now he couldn't use it all that much.

"Nah..." Greg answered. "I already played them through months ago." Looking up to Nick, he smiled. He knew Nick didn't mean it that way and tried not to make him feel any more unease about this situation than he already did.

Nick smiled back. "Hey, did you watch the game last night?"

"Nope, I missed it. Who won?"

"I recorded it. How about you come by my place after work and we watch it together. Ray's already in. Sara and Cath both want to come, too."

Greg looked at Nick with surprise. He didn't really expect this. When he was beaten up a few years ago it took Nick a while to act normal around Greg, as he wasn't sure how much Greg could handle at the moment. This time, Nick decided to try to forget what happened and just help Greg go through this by having some fun with good friends and keeping his mind off it.

He hesitated for a second and then said, "Count me in," and smiled at Nick.

Nick went out the door, but before he got out of the room he turned around.

"And Greg..."

"Yeah?"

"You know, if you need anything... need to talk or something... you know where to find me, right?"

"Sure," Greg said, smiling at Nick, giving him a look that made Nick know he wouldn't need to talk; he already was getting over it. At least he thought he was...


	10. Chapter 10

Hi there! I hope you liked my story so far!

Many of you put my story on story alert, and I just now figured out: you probably think I'll update it here!

I decided to part my stories into many shorter ones instead of one big story. I hope I didn't confuse anyone with this, but if I did: I'm sorry :)

The next story is called _**"An Eye For An Eye"**_ and pretty much picks up where the previous story left off. You can find it on my profile page, but to make it easier for you to keep track I'll post a link to the following story after every story from now on. And here's the link to my second story, the follow-up on _"A day at the video rental store"_.

**.net/s/6506034/1/An_Eye_For_An_Eye** (just put the fanfiction-url in front of it, I can't put the whole url in here, I'm sorry!)

If you'd rather want just one long story, please let me know. I can publish one big story if that's what you guys want!

Again, a big **THANK YOU** for reading and hopefully loving my story. Big Love,

pikapikatchu


End file.
